The horizons of change: between past memories and future imaginations in sustainable food transitions
通过访谈荷兰奶农，研究他们对过去、现在和未来的感知如何影响其在可持续食品转型中的角色，提出记忆、期望和想象三个时间地平线，为包容性转型提供实证依据。
This article investigates Dutch dairy farmers' perception of their past, present and future to shed light on their role in sustainable transitions. We dissect how change is experienced by considering their experiences with the recent Dutch environmental regulations and the emergence of novel food technologies. We find that the ways that farmers perceive change and act on it are impacted by both the memories of farming tradition and related identity, and expectations towards their own future and their sector. We define three temporal points that respond to both literature and empirical work. Qualitatively engaging with interviews, site visits and intergenerational discussions, we argue that making entanglements explicit amid tensions requires recognizing Horizons of Memory and Horizons of Expectations. This allows paving the way for including farmers in Horizons of Imagination. We explain how those three horizons help give an empirical and normative account of change in the context of uncertainty and transformation. Finally, we discuss the dairy farmers' perspective on alternative kinds of milk and the adoption of new food technologies (such as Precision Fermentation). A sustainable transition in food systems should prioritize the inclusion of different actors, also giving place to their temporalities in order to construct inclusive futures. • Farmers' roles and practices are challenged by new environmental regulations and the development of food technologies. Contexts of uncertainty impact their capabilities to imagine the future and act upon it. • Farmers' ways of perceiving the future and their openness to technological innovation are constructed by their intergenerational experiences of change. • Among the alternative proteins, farmers are more familiar with plant-based milks, but have little information about precision fermentation technology. • Farmers' openness to adopting alternative milk production (plant-based and/or precision fermentation) depends on the circumstances of technology transfer, organizational structure, and financial feasibility.